Meadow-Land Dairy Sign

More about this item

Identifier

ghs20250120004

Description

Meadowland Dairy sign used for fairs to promote their product. The top half features a cow, white with brown speckles and yellow udders, with two chains for hanging it on the top of the cow. The botton half comprises the words "MEADOW-LAND DAIRY" in a shallow arc along the semicircular portion of the sign. Below the words is a guided track where a sign/words could be slotted into place. The backside is painted as well.

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

Location

Gresham, Multnomah County, Oregon, United States

Date

1920-1950

Subject

Signs (Notices)

Advertisements

Advertising

Dairy farming

Dairy products industry

Cows

Provenance

Meadowland Dairy got its start in 1902 when Swiss immigrants Henry and Anna Anderegg and Anna's brother Henry Naegeli established a small dairy in southwest Portland. Then called Mountain View, the dairy moved to Beaverton and then Hillsboro, with the family driving the herd to Hickman Bottoms in Troutdale for springtime grazing. In 1918, the Andereggs leased property on Wilson's Hill, now Powell Butte, where the dairy remained until finally closing in 1995. Chinese laborers had logged the hill in the 1800s, clearing space for a farm and orchard. The prior owner, Roy Wilson, planted a walnut grove, which is still intact at the top of Powell Butte. The Anderegg family had a house and farm on the hill where they grew potatoes and kept pigs and horses. While Henry managed the farm, Anna fed a staff of 15 farmhands in addition to running the household and assorted farmwork. All four of her children were born at home with no doctor or midwife present. The children, Walter, Tracy, Leanna, and Lillian, grew up milking cows by hand at 4 in the morning. In addition to milk delivery, the dairy produced ice cream under the labels Mt. Hood and American Maid, later Meadowland. They produced cheese for a short time, but with little success. In 1924, the Andregg family bought property at the base of the hill from the Middletons, including a house that had originally been built in 1892 by the Kronenberg family. They constructed new buildings, including a creamery, and began to pasteurize milk. In 1940, they built the largest barn in east Multnomah. At Meadowland's peak, it delivered to 5,000 households as well as schools, restaurants, and stores. They purchased their first motorized milk truck in the early 1920s. Meadowland was the first milk supplier for Fred Meyer's original store in Portland. The Meadowland Dairy cows were non-registered in early years, but the Andereggs later bought a registered herd of Holsteins and in 1935 bought a herd of 550 Ayrshires, which they had to round up and drive on foot from the wilderness outside Aims, Oregon. Each cow was registered and named; Walter, the eldest Anderegg child, could name them all by sight. Lillian, the youngest of Anna and Henry's children, married Wayne Adams, who had grown up nearby and helped load milk carts as a child. They owned the Buster Brown Shoe Store in Gresham. When Henry passed away in 1968, Lillian and Wayne took over management of the dairy, assisted by Lillian's siblings and their families. They participated in parades and fairs, often bringing a cart drawn by a team of six Percheron horses. The farm was also known for a little league baseball field, where they hosted youth softball and baseball tournaments. They also hosted field trips and dairying professional development workshops. Walter also led walking tours of Powell Butte Park. The City of Portland bought Roy Wilson's property on the hill, which the Andereggs had been leasing, in 1950 and tore down the abandoned farm buildings, which had become a vandalism magnet. Now the property is known as Powell Butte Nature Park. The remainder of the Andereggs' farm has been a mobile home park since 1995, which Lillian continued to manage until her death in 2022. In the 1970s, Bonghan Yun arrived from South Korea as part of a farm worker exchange program. He befriended Lillian and Wayne, who were so fond of him that they paid to bring the rest of his family to the United States. Sahmie Yun and her sister grew up living in a trailer by the big house, attending school in the Centennial district and participating in 4-H. Lillian and Wayne, who had no children of their own, treated the girls as grandchildren. Sahmie assisted Lillian in managing the farm and later the mobile home park and continues to run the mobile home park now. Her husband, Andy Bauer, has been going through the farm records and items stored in the house and remaining buildings.

Format

Sign, Trade

Collection

Agriculture

Item sets

Agriculture